Process of obtaining gas from peat.



No. 865,537. PATENTED SEPT. I0, 1907.

J. E. SMITH. PROCESS DE OBTAINING GAS FROM FEAT.

APPLIOATION FILED DEO.8.1906.

WIIHEEEEE: I IIIVE -I\c1r gy 'l D J nag F1, imh l AHUFI'EQL.

UNITED srarss PATENT @FFTQE;

JAMES E. SMITH, OF CLINTON, IOWA, A SSIGNOR TO NATIONAL FEAT PRODUCTS &

,cumtroAL COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF SOUTH, DAKOTA.

PROCESS OF OBTAINING GAS FROM PEAiT;

Specification of Letters Patent.

Ifatented Sept. 10, 1907:.

Application filed December 8,1906. Serial No. 346,858.

To all whom it may concernf Be it known that I, JAMES E. SMITH, acitizen of the United States, residing at Clinton, in the county ofClin-i tonand State of Iowa, have invented a certain new and usefulImprovement in Processes of Obtaining Gas from Peat, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, concise, and exact deseript'ion, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of thisspecification.

My invention relates to an improved process of ob taining illuminatinggas from peat and for purifying the gas.

Peat after it has been dried sufiiciently, is placed in a retort andheated to drive the gases therefrom, and the gases from the retortusually contain undesired substances such as moisture, tar and its.products and so on, which must be removed from the gas before it isefl'i-' cient for illuminating purposes. To therefore clean the gas, Iprovide a number of purifiers, each in the form of a chamber orcompartment containing dry peat through which the generated gas mustsuccessively pass in the various purifiers, the clean gas being finallyled to a rcservoir. I t

In the accompanying drawing 1 have diagrammatically shown apparatus forillustrating my process, the apparatus comprising the retort or, furnaceF, the puriliers I. and the reservoir R. The peat after being dried, ischarged in the furnace or. retort and then i ated, the gas with all itsimpurities passing through the pipe l to the bottom of the firstpurifier, the puri licrs also containing dried peat. In the firstpurifier the gas from the retort led to the bottom of the'purifier thencirculates upwardly through the peat in the puriricr and escapes fromthe top of the purifier through pipe 2 which leads to the bottom of-thcsecond purifienand the gas circulates upwardly through the peat in theseoud purifier, escaping then through pipe 3 which leadspeat from thepurifiersis charged into the retort to be mixed in anyproportion'desired with fresh peatthere in. This peat from the purifierswhen heatedin the retort serves to enrich the gas, that is, theproduetsextracted from the gas in this peat when in the purifier enrichthe gas and cause it to give a white flame. The purifiers are, ofcourse, refilled with fresh peat after the foul pea-t has 'been removedtherefrom.

Of course, the apparatus I have shown in thedrawf ing is merelydiagrammatic, and any suitable apparatus may be, used'ior carrying outmy process Patent:

which consists in subjecting fresh dried peat to the action of heatwhereby gas is driven therefrom, then purifying the gas obtained bypassing it through dry peat, and then adding the peat through which thegas has been passed,

yapors to he added to the gas. i In witness whereof, I hereuntosubscribe my name this 5th day of December A. 1)., 1006. I

JAMES E. s'Mr'rirl' Witnesses CHARLES .T. Scrum) tiuonou E. Human.

rities and, therefore, foul, and as soon as this occurs, the

to the fresh pear. to he heatedtherewith to cause enriching being partlyvaporized when heated, and these vapors- [so I desire to secure thefollowing claims by Letters The process of obtaining illuminating gasfrom peat-

